God’s desire from the very beginning has been for his people to multiply, to live sent, and to fill the earth with his image, his glory, and the knowledge of him. We are not here by accident; we are intentionally created by an intentional God, called to reflect him in every sphere of life. From Genesis, we see that God’s mandate was not just about populating the earth, but about spreading his presence and his praise everywhere. Yet, the human tendency is to settle—to choose comfort, security, and self-made significance over the call to go, to scatter, and to trust God’s mission.
The story of Babel in Genesis 11 is a warning against settling for less than God’s purpose. The people unified, but around the wrong thing: their own name, their own comfort, their own control. They built a tower not just as an architectural feat, but as a declaration of independence from God, seeking to make a name for themselves rather than proclaiming the name of the Lord. When comfort becomes an idol, obedience to God feels like a threat, and we risk missing out on the greater things God wants to do through us.
Idolatry is subtle. It’s anything we’re willing to disobey God to keep, anything that defines our worth, controls our emotions, or that we hide and defend when challenged. When we make comfort or anything else our god, we not only hinder our relationship with God, but also damage our relationships with others and our witness in the world. Faulty worship leads to faulty unity; we can be unified around the wrong things, and that unity can actually oppose God’s purposes.
But God, in his mercy, intervenes—not just to judge, but to preserve and redirect us back to his mission. Scattering is not a curse, but part of God’s plan to fill the earth with his glory. The Great Commission is the new creation mandate: to go, to make disciples of all nations, to be fruitful and multiply spiritually. This is not just for a select few, but for every follower of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Living sent means embracing discomfort, stepping out of our preferences, and being willing to disrupt our own routines for the sake of God’s mission. It means seeing our work, our neighborhoods, our daily lives as places to plant the gospel. It means being a church that is always gathering and always scattering, always multiplying, so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Genesis 11:1-9 (ESV) — > Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) — > And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Habakkuk 2:14 (ESV) — > For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
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